2004-04-19 04:00:00 PDT Baghdad -- The brutal slaying and mutilation of four private U.S. guards as they drove through the flashpoint town of Fallujah last month shocked the world and sparked an escalation of the bloody conflict in Iraq. Yet as U.S. Marines besiege the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim city in a bid to punish the attackers, one uncomfortable question remains: Could the tragedy have been avoided?

In the past three weeks, The Chronicle has delved into the background of the fateful decision that led Blackwater Security, a respected and experienced U.S. security firm, to escort a food convoy through the most dangerous town in Iraq.

Disturbing allegations have emerged that Blackwater -- which provides guards for Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator in Iraq -- ignored warnings from another security company that Fallujah was unsafe to travel through.

Furthermore, a former military colleague of one of the slain men, ex-Navy SEAL Scott Helvenston, 38, of Oceanside (San Diego County), has raised questions about why the company may have taken on risks they could not cope with.

"I hate to speak ill of the dead, and of a good friend," said Richard Perry, of Sacramento, a former naval intelligence officer who worked with Helvenston before he left the armed services. "But to be frank, everything that happened in Fallujah that day was a serious mistake. I simply cannot understand why the hell they were driving through the most dangerous part of Iraq in just two vehicles without a proper military escort."

Although Perry has not worked in Iraq since the war began, he has done similar work in Colombia and El Salvador. He said of the fatal convoy: "They were lightly armed, and yet they would be up against people who regularly take on the U.S. Army."

Blackwater's own investigation into the Fallujah incident is still under way, and many of those who saw it first-hand are either dead or on the run. However, it is known that when the guards were attacked, they were escorting a food convoy for a contractor working for Compass Group, a global firm delivering meals for coalition forces in Iraq.

Security sources in Iraq have told The Chronicle that Blackwater had just taken over the escort contract from a British company, Control Risks Group, which warned them at the time that Fallujah was not safe to travel through.

According to senior executives working with other Baghdad security companies, Blackwater's decision to press ahead anyway stemmed from a desire to impress its new clients.

"There has been a big row about this," said one executive, who asked not to be named. "Not long before the convoy left, Control Risks said, 'Don't go through Fallujah, it's not safe.' But Blackwater wanted to show Compass that nowhere was too dangerous for them."

Control Risks Group, one of the leading British security firms in Iraq, declined to discuss the matter. But a source within the company confirmed that the broad thrust of the criticisms was correct. "We can't make any comment, but you don't need us to," he said.

Such claims have been strongly denied by Blackwater officials, who say the horrific events of March 31 were simply one of the occasional disasters that befall people in dangerous jobs. The firm insists that its staff, trained by former U.S. Navy SEALs, operates only to the highest standards.

In a statement to The Chronicle, Blackwater spokesman Chris Bertelli said insinuations that the men were showing off to their new clients show an "ignorance of the seriousness of the work."

He added: "It is certainly not out of the question that some of Blackwater's competitors would use this tragic occurrence as an opportunity to try and damage Blackwater's reputation and secure contracts for themselves."

But since Blackwater provides the 10-strong security detail that protects Bremer -- the No. 1 target on any Iraqi insurgent's hit list -- any questions about its judgment have wide ramifications. Blackwater has about 400 employees in Iraq, and it guards a number of senior members of the Coalition Provisional Authority in addition to Bremer.

What surprises other security experts most is that the team considered venturing into Fallujah at all. As countless U.S. Army units have discovered to their detriment, the two-lane highway that runs through the city's shabby downtown is perfect for ambushes from nearby buildings.

The newly trained Iraqi police are often too scared to come to the aid of coalition forces, and as the grisly scenes that followed the Blackwater team's deaths demonstrated, little mercy can be expected from the locals.

"Even the U.S. Army gets beaten there regularly. The insurgents have had a year to develop their tactics, and they're no amateurs any more," said Malcolm Nance, a former U.S. naval intelligence officer and FBI terrorism adviser who works as a security consultant in Baghdad. "Some places here are best left to the U.S. Army only, and Fallujah is one of them."

Nance also questioned why, in an area with such a dangerous reputation, the Blackwater guards were traveling only two to a car. The weeks just before March 31 had seen a sudden spate of attacks on private guards across Iraq, and many firms were already reviewing their protection levels.

"With one driving, that means only one is available to shoot at the enemy, " said Nance. "You have to remember that the opposition would have numbers on their side."

One explanation is that the Blackwater team never intended to go through Fallujah in the first place, but was diverted off the main highway that bypasses the town by unexpected roadblocks or even a previous attack.

A Baghdad-based senior Blackwater employee who asked that his name not be used said: "I haven't heard about whether a warning was given, but I can tell you that if they thought it was too dangerous, we can easily say, 'No, not today.' That's our job."

Blackwater's management, which has headquarters in Moyock, N.C., says the four men were victims of a trap laid by insurgents posing as members of the Iraqi Civil Defense Corps (ICDC), who may have told them the road was safe in order to lure them on.

In a recent New York Times interview, Patrick Toohey, the firm's vice president for government relations, said the ICDC or impostors wearing civil defense uniforms apparently had promised the team safe passage through Fallujah.

When the Americans arrived at a particular point inside the city, they found the road blocked and were gunned down before they could turn around. "The truth is, we got led into this ambush," Toohey told the Times. "We were set up."

But that contention raises more questions than it answers, some observers say. Like most of Iraq's newly reconstituted security forces, the ICDC is known to have been infiltrated by resistance fighters, and no Western security company would normally rely on its guarantee of protection.

"In Fallujah especially, an ICDC guarantee is of zero value," said Nance. "You would never trust the word of local forces in a place like that -- especially if you were driving a high-profile convoy, as these people were."

Blackwater spokesman Bertelli said, "While our internal investigation continues, we are not aware of any specific warnings by anyone, including other private security contractors, that the route being traveled the day of March 31 was not the safest route to the convoy's destination. The two men leading the convoy had extensive experience in Iraq prior to the trip that resulted in the ambush and were well aware of the areas that are considered to be highly dangerous. They were all highly trained former U.S. Navy SEAL and Special Forces troops. The ambush took place in such a way that it would not have made a difference if there had been additional personnel protecting the convoy."

Until separate military and company inquiries are complete, exactly what did happen that day remains a matter of speculation.

"My own son was serving in Somalia as a ranger when the U.S. Marines (actually Army Rangers) were killed and dragged through the streets of Mogadishu," he said. "I remember seeing that on TV and wondering if he was OK. Fallujah reminded me of that, and it is something nobody should have to endure."

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